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Make a murder charge stick. and it turned out, there was an explanation. remember, while under suspicion for annie s murder, ferry was arrested for an unrelated kidnapping in a different town. the charge stuck. ferry eventually pleaded guilty and was sent to prison. draper police came to believe it was this kidnapping that star witness joanna had recounted to them. she had seen a totally different crime. not annie s murder. what s more, it happened on the same night annie was killed. no way daniel ferry could have committed both crimes. so now, rookie detective jaclyn moore went back to the boxes and binders piled high on her desk. i felt lost. i decided i need to start from the beginning and see what information derek had when he first got the case. reporter: and so began the education of a detective. she started reading through pages and pages of annie s notes and journal entries. who does annie turn out to be, the more you learn about her? she s very lost. ....
L.j. were one and the same. either way ferry seemed like their man. but the d.a. wanted more evidence before filing charges. derek johnson and chad carpenter thought the blood samples taken from daniel ferry s home would push the case over the finish line. you and derek have to think bloodwork came back, and it was negative for blood. reporter: not only were the samples not annie s blood, it wasn t even blood at all. a major blow to the investigation. didn t mean he s not good for the crime? it doesn t mean that he s not good for the crime. it just led us to believe that, okay, it didn t happen here, at the ferry residence. reporter: so ferry might be good for this thing, but boy, you re just not getting there? yeah. reporter: the only bright spot, daniel ferry wasn t getting out of jail. he was also being investigated for an unrelated kidnapping and assault case in a neighboring town. so he s on ice while you guys can develop your theories about his involvement in this thi ....
okay. show me a picture, then. reporter: you showed him a picture of annie. yep. brittany? is her name brittany? no, it s annie. reporter: detectives thought daniel was lying, and they were done playing around. what if i told you she s dead? i didn t do it. what the [ bleep ]? if you guys think i did this, i do want a lawyer. okay. because there s only we re done. the only thing that is shaking me. we re done daniel, because i think you did it. well, if you think i did it, then you ve got the wrong guy, man. for real. good luck. find the right guy. reporter: derek was confident he had. they booked daniel for annie s murder. reporter: l.j., whoever he was, still hadn t turned up, but detective derek johnson still thought he d wrapped up his first homicide. all he needed was the lab to confirm that the blood found in daniel s home was annie s. but then the lab called and everything unraveled. coming up ....
She was passed along from foster home to foster home before she was adopted by her case worker, veronica. annie s life finally seemed to be turning around. then in 2012, annie, just 15, was found murdered, her body floating in the jordan river. there was never a second that your mind didn t go to, this is not what was supposed to happen. reporter: an eyewitness said she saw daniel ferry assault a girl the night annie was killed. that witness also said the girl had shown up with l.j., whom police could never find. but in the course of their investigation of ferry, detectives learned something interesting. and you had another l.j. in that crowd, didn t you? yeah. reporter: daniel ferry? yeah. reporter: what was his nickname? he used two. one was joker and the other was little joe. reporter: little joe? l.j.? ....
yeah. reporter: maybe their witness was confused or deliberately hiding the fact that ferry and l.j. were one and the same. either way ferry seemed like their man. but the d.a. wanted more evidence before filing charges. derek johnson and chad carpenter thought the blood samples taken from daniel ferry s home would push the case over the finish line. bloodwork came back, and it was negative for blood. reporter: not only were the samples not annie s blood, it wasn t even blood at all. a major blow to the investigation. didn t mean he s not good for the crime? it doesn t mean that he s not good for the crime. it just led us to believe that, okay, it didn t happen here, at the ferry residence. reporter: so ferry might be good for this thing, but boy, you re just not getting there? yeah. reporter: the only bright spot, daniel ferry wasn t getting out of jail. he was also being investigated for an unrelated kidnapping and assault case in a neighboring town. so he s on ice wh ....